ABYSSINIA, an empire in eastern Africa. The ruler, styled Negus Negusti, or King of Kings, is Menelek II, who after the death of Johannes II in battle with the dervishes overcame his rivals and established himself on the throne in 1889 by the aid of arms furnished by the Italians. He had entered into a treaty with Italy, signed at Ucciali on May 2, 1889, at the beginning of the struggle, while he was still only King of Shoa, and this treaty was confirmed in October of that year. The Italian version gave to Italy a protectorate over the Empire of Abyssinia, otherwise called Ethiopia. Menelek denied that the treaty conferred such right. The relations between him and the Italians became strained on account of his refusal to recognize the protectorate, and his denouncement of the treaty in 1893 led to a rupture. In 1895 the Italians occupied Tigre, the northern kingdom, and advanced into Amhara; but after the forces of Ras Mangascia, King of Tigre, had been driven out by the Italians, Menelek marched into the north with a large army from Shoa, surprised the Italian garrisons, surrounded the main body of Gen. Baratieri's army near Adowa, and well-nigh destroyed it in a general engagement fought on March 1, 1896. Through the friendly intervention of Russia a treaty of peace was concluded on Oct. 26, 1896, at Adis Abeba. By this treaty Menelek recognized as Italian possessions all territories lying north of the Mareb, Balesa, and Muni rivers, and Italy recognized the absolute independence of Abyssinia and the dominion of Menelek over all territories south of that line. The government of Abyssinia, or Ethiopia, is of a feudal character. The kingdom of Tigre in the northeast, the adjoining province of Lasta, the central kingdom of Amhara, Gojam next to it, and the powerful kingdom of Shoa in the south make up Abyssinia proper, the dependencies of which extend into Somaliland as far as Harrar and embrace a large part of the country of the Gallas. The port of Massowah, formerly disputed between Abyssinia and Egypt, has been annexed by Italy with the other dependencies to the north of the Abyssinian plateau and a part of the highland district in the northeastern part of Tigre. The area of the empire is estimated at 150,000 square miles, and the population at 3,500,000. The Abyssinians once followed Jewish rites, and still practice some of them, but since the fourth century they have been Christians of the Alexandrian rite. The head of their Church, called the abuna, is a Copt selected and consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria. There are about 12,000 monks, presided over by a native ecclesiastic, called the echegeh, and these and the priests instruct a select portion of the

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youth in grammar, poetry, religious ceremonial, and song. The judicial magistrates are the gov ernors, chiefs, and landed aristocracy. The people raise cattle, sheep, and goats, and cultivate the land to a limited extent. Cotton, coffee, the indigo plant, the sugar cane, the date palm, and the vine grow wild. There are extensive forests abounding in valuable woods. The principal exports, sent mostly through Massowah, are skins, ivory, butter, gums, and mules. Besides the forces of the feudal chiefs, the Negus has a trained army of enlisted men armed with modern rifles.

The climate is varied, producing the fruits of all zones, for Abyssinia is composed of a succession of table-lands rising from 4.000 to 8,000 feet in height, intersected with deep valleys and ravines. In the lower plateaus rice, sugar cane, indigo, and other tropical products grow wild; in the more temperate regions vines and nearly every species of European fruits and vegetables are found in great luxuriance; while the loftiest plains are suited to the cultivation of barley and some native species of grain. The southern districts are the natural home of the coffee tree. The principal crop is doura, from which the Abyssinians make a great part of their food. The banana is the principal fruit eaten by the natives. There are excellent breeds of horses and mules in the country. The mineral wealth of Abyssinia is unquestionable, and the lack of expert labor has been the obstacle to the production and manufacture of the useful metals. The sale of gold is forbidden by law. It is forbidden also to traffic in ivory, though elephants are numerous,

The ruling caste is of the Hebrew race, formed of successive immigrations from Palestine. The Jewish religion was established in Ethiopia by Menelek, son of Solomon and Makeda, or Nicaula, the Queen of Sheba. King Solomon provided his favorite son, when he went to join his mother, with a guard of 12,000 Israelitish soldiers, with whose aid, after Makeda's death, he founded the Solomonian dynasty of Ethiopian emperors. Jerusalem became from that time the center of pious pilgrimages of the Abyssinian people. An important Jewish immigration took place during the first captivity, and another during the reign of Salmanasar. These exiles became rapidly acclimatized and absorbed in the bulk of the Ethiopian nation. A last exodus followed after the destruction of the Temple, but these later comers have remained to the present day outside the pale of Abyssinian society, maintaining their ghettos in the province of Samen, where they follow metal working and remain faithful to their ancient creed. The Ethiopians, on the other hand, embraced Christianity at

a very early period, retaining, however, all the rites, the spirit, and the doctrines of their old religion that were not abrogated by the Gospel. These Ethiopians, who are genuine Hebrews in race, form the aristocracy of the country, furnishing the dignitaries of church and state and the feudal chiefs of society. There are about 400,000 of these descendants of Hebrew settlers, ruling over 14,000,000. The Negus can raise an army of 200,000 men, of whom more than half are equipped with modern rifles.

Diplomatic Missions. The loss of the battle of Adowa on March 1, 1896, when the Italian army was beaten in pitched battle by the Abyssinians and 12,000 Italians were left dead on the field, led to the renunciation of the protectorate over Abyssinia claimed by the Italians in accordance with their version of the treaty of Ucciali, though the original Amharic text, as interpreted by the Abyssinians, contained no such meaning. The final agreement was facilitated by the intervention of the Pope, who sent Monsignor Macarius to the Emperor Menelek to intercede for the release of the Italian prisoners, and who also bespoke the good offices of France and Russia to bring the treaty negotiations to a satisfactory conclusion. The treaty of peace was finally concluded between Major Nerazzini, the Italian plenipotentiary, and the Negus Menelek at Adis Abeba on Oct. 26, 1896. As in regard to the former treaty, a difference of interpretation arose between the Italian and Abyssinian governments in regard to one of the clauses of the new one. According to the official Italian text, Italy undertook not to cede any portion of her Abyssinian territory to any power except Abyssinia until the frontier between Menelek's dominions and the Italian colony is definitely fixed. According to the Abyssinian version, Italy engaged herself never to cede any part of her Abyssinian territory to any power save Abyssinia.

Since the withdrawal of Italy's claim to conduct the foreign affairs of Abyssinia, a right that was not denied by any of the European powers except France and Russia before the new treaty supplanted the treaty of Ucciali, the Negus Menelek has obtained the unquestioned right to treat directly with foreign powers. The European governments were not slow in seeking to establish diplomatic relations and establish their influence at King Menelek's court. The French, whose colony of Obok adjoins Abyssinia, concluded a commercial treaty with the Negus in January, 1897, and four or five French expeditions were planned for the purpose of opening Abyssinia and the eastern Soudan to French influence and commerce. M. Bonvalot was officially commissioned to investigate the problem of entering the Soudan. Prince Henri d'Orleans undertook a similar mission without official credentials. Max Baveler was sent out by the French Chamber of Commerce to prepare the way for another party under the Vicomte de Constantin. One of the objects sought by the French is permission to construct a railroad from Djibouti to Harrar. The line is expected to be completed to the Abyssinian town of Antotto before the end of 1899. M. Lagarde, the Governor of Obok, was intrusted with a new diplomatic mission to the Negus. An imposing diplomatic mission was conducted by Rennell Rodd, secretary to the British legation in Egypt, who was dispatched as special envoy, with a numerous staff, to reopen diplomatic relations with the Ethiopian monarch and to acquaint him with the nature and extent of the British claims in Egypt and the regions of the upper Nile, and secure his recognition of British and Egyptian rights over Kordofan and Sennaar and throughout the regions of the White Nile. One of the objects of

the mission was to induce King Menelek to retire from territories that he had conquered which formerly belonged to Egypt. A commercial convention formed part of the negotiations, also a proposal for co-operation against the dervishes of the Soudan. Russian expeditions of a semiofficial or patriotic character, though ostensibly religious or scientific, had been numerous in Abyssinia during the nominal Italian protectorate from the time when the Cossack Ashinoff led the way in 1889. The Russian Church has sent missionaries to the

country at various times. Lieut. Mashkoff went on a political errand in 1891. In 1895 a party of Abyssinian prelates and princes visited St. Petersburg under the personal conduct of M. Leontieff. Col. Maxinoff visited Menelek at Adis Abeba in the early part of 1897. A new Russian expedition under M. Poliakoff set out from Europe in the beginning of April, 1897.

The English expedition, setting out from Zeila, reached Adis Abeba on April 28. An agreement between Great Britain and Abyssinia was signed on May 14, and on the following day the envoy and his suite took their departure.

The Emperor Menelek in treating with the English envoy was even less inclined to acknowledge as lying within the British sphere territories formerly conceded to Ethiopia by British diplomacy and others actually occupied by Abyssinian forces than he was to sanction the retention by Italy of the boundaries within the Abyssinian high plateau to which he had provisionally consented in the treaty of Adis Abeba. Kassala itself was formally restored to Ethiopia by the treaty of June 3, 1884, concluded between the Negus Johannes and the Egyptian Government under the auspices of Great Britain. Afterward Great Britain, on March 24, 1891, recognized as Italian the whole Ethiopian Empire, from the river Juba to the Blue Nile, and by a second treaty of April 15, 1891, completed this gift of Abyssinia to Italy, including in the gift the town of Kassala, with the stipulation that it should be retroceded to Egypt. In like manner England, after agreeing with France by the convention of Feb. 8, 1888, to neutralize Harrar, which at that moment was in the actual possession of Abyssinian troops, by a new treaty on May 5, 1894, expressly abandoned Harrar to Italy. Germany also, in the Anglo-German agreement of July 1, 1890, sanctioned the abandonment of Ethiopia and the Galla countries to Italy. Believing that the treaty of Adis Abeba canceled all these former treaties by which European powers disposed of his territory without his knowledge or consent, Menelek was anxious that in coming to a definite boundary agreement with Italy, and in fixing the boundaries between Abyssinia and the Egyptian Soudan, the great powers should ratify the arrangement. While the Negus was willing to concede the provisional boundary formed by the rivers Mareb, Belesa, and Muna as the permanent frontier, the various Ras wanted him to insist on a frontier considerably to the north.

Italian Policy.-Major Nerazzini was commissioned to delimit the frontier of the Italian possessions on the line laid down in the treaty of peace. King Menelek endeavored to persuade the Italians to abandon the Mareb boundary and accept a new frontier at the foot of the high plateau. The Government of the Marquis of Rudini decided to retain the positions on the plateau, which, according to expert opinion, could be defended by 5,000 men against an army. After a week's discussion, on May 22 the Italian Chamber passed a vote of confidence in the undefined plans of the Government, rejecting by a majority of 89 a radical proposal in favor of entire abandonment, and by a much larger

majority the motion of the Opposition to suspend action until the new limits were fixed at the widest extent allowed by treaty through the delimitation survey. Later in the year the Government decided to appoint a civil governor in the place of Gen. Vigano. Ras Alula before his death, in February, 1897, gave the Italians trouble by his raids upon their territory. On the opposite frontier the dervishes taxed their resources. Their horsemen attacked the Beni Amer tribesmen in Italian territory and drove away their cattle, killing 30 of the Askaris who were sent to repel the raid. A large dervish force left Ghedaref at the beginning of January, and, plundering the Bazas tribe, entered the country of Barias, who fled with their cattle to the hills. The Italians, anticipating an attack on Agordat, concentrated troops on the plain with such rapidity that the dervishes withdrew and intrenched themselves at Amideb. The Italian prisoners released by the Negus began to arrive home in the beginning of January. Toward the end of that month Menelek directed that no more prisoners should be set free until the Italians evacuated the part of Erythrea restored by treaty to Abyssinia. Further convoys of prisoners were sent to Zeila later. The last prisoner to leave Adis Abeba was Gen. Albertone. In the provinces a few Italians still remained in May. Major Nerazzini continued his negotiations with Menelek for a definitive treaty until early autumn, when he returned to Italy for fresh instructions. King Menelek would agree to none of the proposals of the Italian envoy, and promised only that he would grant to Italy a better frontier than that accepted by Count Antonelli but rejected by his Government in 1891. By this Italy would lose the two fertile provinces of Serach and Oguleh-Cusai, as well as the strong Mareb boundary. The boundary that he proposed starts from Tomat, on the Atbara, joins the Mareb at Todluk, follows that river to its confluence with the Mai Ambessa, which it mounts to its source, follows the Mai Feccia down to the upper Mareb, ascends the Mai Raetta, passes south of Gura, Digsa, and Mahio, descends to the plain of Galline Faraone, and runs parallel to the Red Sea at a distance of 60 kilometres from the coast. On the southeastern border it continues at 180 miles from the shore of the Indian Ocean, joining the Juba to the north of Bardera and leaving Luk under the suzerainty of Abyssinia, though it remains an Italian trading center. This frontier was accepted by the Italian Government, with a reserve as to Adi Caje, a post that had been fortified by the Italians at an expense of 3,000,000 francs. The chief points of the negotiations, which were to be brought to a conclusion within a year of the signature of the treaty of Adis Abeba, on Oct. 26, 1896, were the amount of the ransom for the Italian prisoners and the delimitation of the frontier. Menelek abated his claim for ransom from 20,000,000 to 10,000,000 lire, but grew more exacting in regard to boundaries. The Italian Government was not ready to evacuate at once the high plateau, on account of political considerations at home and international complications, and for fear of intertribal conflicts resulting upon the withdrawal of Italian forces. The prospective restoration of Kassala to Egypt, which could be accomplished as soon as the Anglo-Egyptian forces gained possession of Khartoum and Berber, would hasten the development of the ultimate Italian policy in Africa. If the colony could not be made self-supporting and defensible without any further sacrifice of Italian blood or treasure, the Rudini Government would prefer withdrawal from the Abyssinian plateau, from Asmara and Keren, and even from Massowah. The Erythrean budget as prepared and presented to the Chamber

on May 18, provided for an expenditure of 19,800,000 lire for 1897. Subsequently the estimate was cut down by the ministry to 8,900,000 lire. In May Signor Rudini induced the Chamber to indorse the possible limitation of the military occupation to Massowah alone and the organization of the rest of the colony, including the high plateau, under tributary native chiefs. Hence Menelek increased his demands and refused the Mareb frontier, which he was willing to concede after the battle of Adowa. Major Nerazzini concluded with Menelek a commercial treaty securing for Italian citizens full freedom of movement and of trade, with protection for merchants and merchandise and most-favored-nation treatment in respect to customs and octroi duties. Both contracting parties bind themselves to promote the opening of routes for the better development of commercial relations between the Italian territories on the Indian Ocean and the south of Abyssinia. The treaty gave to Italy the right to have a permanent representative at the Abyssinian court. Capt. Ciccodicola was appointed to this post, while Senator Bonfadini was made Civil Governor of Erythrea. In August the Italian Government informed the British Government that it was desirous of transferring Kassala to the Anglo-Egyption authorities as soon as possible.

Operations in Somaliland.-After the defeat of the Italians in 1896, Ras Makonen, a cousin of King Menelek, and the most powerful of the feudal princes of Abyssinia, established himself in Harrar, of which he was appointed governor, and with his army of 40,000 men extended his conquests over the Somalis, occupying Ogaden, a district lying within the sphere assigned in conventions to Great Britain.

The Equatorial Provinces.-Rennell Rodd's mission, so far from obtaining from Menelek an admission that the region of the White Nile was within the Anglo-Egyptian sphere, took back to England the reply that he considered the whole Hinterland as Abyssinian, including the banks of the Nile down to Khartoum and up to the Lake Nyanza, with all the country of the Gallas. He declared, however, that he would not assist the dervishes against the English, and when the Khalifa sent an ambassador later, seeking an alliance, he declined to enter into a league with his hereditary enemies. In Gallaland and Somaliland the English envoy conceded to Abyssinia some of the places reserved to British influence in the Anglo-French agreement of 1891. The Russian Major Leontieff, who obtained from King Menelek the appointment of Governor-General of the Equatorial Provinces of Ethiopia, made arrangements with Prince Henri of Orleans to organize an expedition to take possession of both banks of the Nile up to the borders of the Congo State, in the name of the Emperor of Ethiopia, and thus frustrate the British plan of connecting the East African protectorate with Egypt, and at the same time establish communications through Bahr el Ghazal with the French outposts on the upper Ubangi. French engineers had obtained the right to build a railroad from Jiboutil to Harrar and Adis Abeba. A concession for railroads in Abyssinia was granted to a company formed by Alfred İlg, a Swiss engineer, and Alfred Chefneux, a French explorer. The French were already erecting for King Menelek a telegraph line over this route. The rival French expedition that went out under M. Bonvalot, with whom Prince Henri of Orleans quarreled at the outset, reached the White Nile first, passing through the Galla country, where the intercession of Menelek secured a good reception for the Frenchmen, who were now led by the Marquis de Bonchamps. The object of this expedition was to establish France solidly on the left